Wolf's Bane
by WeepingAngelXIII
Summary: Sirius played a trick on Snape which nearly killed him... involving a werewolf.
1. Moony

In summer the sun doesn't set as soon, and the nights are very short. It gives me time. I can avoid the moon for the longest then, and I do not have to put as much effort into hiding, waiting for the moon to come. I like the summer for that reason. Which brings me neatly to why, yesterday evening, when everyone else as asleep (except James and Sirius, who by now I have come to the conclusion that they just don't sleep – and how they manage it baffles me), I was lying tucked into the duvet with parchment on my pillow, drawing onto it with my wand.

It was about nine/ten o'clock, I think, and the sun was still up. I was planning out the map that we'd decided on. The parchment I was drawing on was to be our Marauder's Map. James thought of the name. He'd said it had a certain drama to it. I can rather see his point. However Hogwarts is a big place, and if you want to cover every room, staircase and secret passage on one piece of parchment, it was going to be hard work. But no matter how willing I was to stay up here and work on this map, I couldn't. It was the night of the full moon, and even though nights like that never ran smoothly, it was even less so yesterday.

It was almost an omen that I had fallen asleep. I'm usually never relaxed on the night of the full moon to sleep. I'm usually waiting for the only boy in our dormitory who does not know my secret to fall asleep himself and then I would make my way down into the grounds (with James, Sirius and Peter following at a safe distance beneath James' invisibility cloak) and make my way to the Shrieking Shack. Yet somehow, yesterday I had fallen asleep. I don't remember falling asleep myself, but I do remember James shaking me awake in the red light of dusk.

"Pst, Moony. You awake?" I woke up feeling surprised and glanced at the watch I had fastened around my wrist. It was getting dangerously close to sunset. How could I have slept? I sat up. Sirius was rooting through James' trunk, searching for the invisibility cloak and Peter was sitting cross-legged on his bed, watching me with distinct nervousness. Still drowsy, I got up as Sirius pulled the cloak out from under some of James' books, earning a wince from Peter as a pile of transfiguration books toppled with a loud clatter. My eyes darted immediately to the only other occupied bed, but there was no movement at all.

"Sorry," whispered Sirius, swishing the cloak around and bringing it out to its full size. Peter slipped off the bed and scurried over to Sirius as he disappeared under the cloak. I crossed to the door and took one last look behind me. James had crouched down and picked up a rat from the floor. Peter had already transformed: Sirius' suggestion as it saved room under the cloak. Sirius' head appeared out of thin air, indicating where he was. James looked over at me.

"Right behind you," he whispered, and he walked over to where Sirius was. Both disappeared as they vanished under the cloak. I opened the dormitory door and descended the stairs quietly.

The common room was empty. Good. With a quick word behind me to check that the others were still there and I crossed to the portrait hole and climbed out. I always took a long time to climb out and close the portrait behind me. I was aware of the others needing to get out without being noticed by the Fat Lady. I went ahead as usual. I was the only student in the castle allowed to be out at this time. I would meet with Madam Pomfrey and go down to where the Whomping Willow was planted; then through the secret passage to the House and wait for the moon. It always felt better now, because of what the others had done to help me.

Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs: best friends. It made me feel better now that they were there with me. No one else was allowed to know though. Madam Pomfrey took me down to the Willow and helped me down into the hole where I would walk along the passage to the House and wait for the others, or the moon, whichever came first.

I watched the sleeping town of Hogsmead through the crack in the window boards. Although the sun had now set, the moon had not yet risen, but it still unnerved me. I knew what was coming and it would be painful, as always. Suddenly I heard a voice behind me in the passage. It was James. Why was he not in animal form? Something was wrong. I strained my ears to try and hear what he was staying.

"Stay here. I'll go." Then the sound of hooves retreated down the passage. What was going on? A rat scurried past me and sat on the windowsill: Peter.

"Wormtail?" He nodded. "What's happening?" Sirius appeared out of the air behind me, looking worried.

"He's not happy with me," he said.

"Who?" I asked.

"Prongs."

"Why? What did you do?"

"I _might_ have said to Snivelus how to get in here."

"YOU DID **WHAT**?" Sirius looked taken aback again.

"It was a joke," he said, defensively.

"You told him, knowing full well what he'd do, how to get into the passage; the passage, moreover where there is likely to be a werewolf any second now?"

"I thought it would be funny."

"It could kill him, or worse. Sirius..." My using his forename seemed to give some depth to the situation. He now looked very afraid. Right on cue, the moon slid out from behind a cloud, and the room was bathed in moonlight. Sirius quickly transformed. The dog now barred my way down the passage. He was buying time. He needed it. Peter scurried under the bed, watching with his beady eyes. The burning sensation of my own transformation started in my head as spread quickly. I could no longer control my actions. If Snape made it into the tunnel I would have to rely on the others to keep him safe now.


	2. THe Half Blood Prince

"All you have to do is poke the knot on the tree with a long branch."

Simple enough. I hate Sirius Black. I was nearly killed because of that one sentence. He wouldn't have minded if I had actually been killed. None of them would have done. They were probably all in on it. They always have been. Anything one of them does, the others knew about it. How could Dumbledore have allowed such a monster into this school? Has he no idea of what those things could do? I am going straight to the headmaster when I have a chance and when I'm out of the Hospital Wing.

Sirius Black told me how to get through the Willow. For many months now I had noticed that Lupin had been disappearing every month. Looking back it seems rather obvious, but I was curious as to where he went. Last month I had seen Madam Pomfrey taking him into the grounds and towards the Whomping Willow. I naturally asked around to see if it was possible to know if there was a passage under the Willow or near it. After a few weeks Black seemed to be getting annoyed with what I was doing. He told me that I ought to keep my nose out of other people's business but he still told me what I wanted to know and how to get into the passage. I should have known then that it would not be end well, but I was too curious. I followed Lupin out of the castle and down to the Willow, hiding in the grounds until I knew it was safe. I saw the tree freeze and Lupin disappeared into the roots, but I didn't dare to follow until Madam Pomfrey had walked back up the distant castle steps into the entrance hall.

Already the sky was dark, made darker by low hanging clouds swirling overhead. I made my way to the Willow as (after an extraordinarily long time) it began to move again. Just out of the reach of the branches of the tree, I picked up the long branch that Madam Pomfrey had used to touch the knot. Now, where exactly was this knot? It had to be near this spot. I ran the branch over the trunk of the young tree, avoiding the blows the tree aimed at me. By blind luck I found the correct spot and the tree froze. Closely watching the silhouette of the tree, in case it began to move again, I made my way to a gap in the roots and slid down.

I slid a considerable distance downwards until I hit the earthy floor of the passage. It was even darker down here. Deciding that it was safe to risk a little light, I drew out my wand.

"Lumos." The wand tip lit allowing me a shadowy view of the passage I was now in. Stooping to avoid hitting my head on the ceiling low I began my long journey along the passage.

I have no idea how long I walked, but if felt like a very long time. I began to become apprehensive but my curiosity kept me going. After what seemed like ages I heard the faint whispers of voices ahead. I stopped where I was, conscious of my light.

"Nox," I whispered and continued in the dark. The path began to rise slowly and then I managed to catch two short sentences quite clearly.

"Stay here. I'll go." I tensed. I knew that voice: Potter. What was he doing here? Surely I would have seen him. I tightened my grip on my wand and stayed where I was. The sound of hooves reached my ears. What was going on there? Something growled in the passage ahead. I couldn't help it. I had to look. I took a few steps forward and something hard hit me in the chest with enough force to knock me a full six feet down the passage. Winded and wondering if all my ribs were intact, I looked up to see a huge stag blocking up almost the whole passage and forcing me back. I coughed, trying to recover my breath and tried to stand back up, but then I caught sight of what was going on behind the stag and I stopped.

A large black dog was barring the passage and growling at something that made my heart stop. I knew enough about Defence against the Dark Arts to know what was going on and I wondered how I had not guessed before now. Remus Lupin was standing facing the dog and staring down the passage, straight into my eyes. Still recognisably him, fur had begun to sprout on his skin and sharp pointed teeth twisted into a snarl. Even as I watched his hands curled into clawed paws and he collapsed to all fours, snarling. The thing that had just been Lupin jumped at the dog, trying to force its way past and towards me. The stag lowered its head again and hit me again in urgency. I coughed again and yelled as my chest stabbed in pain. Now I was rather sure something was broken or at least torn, but considering the situation... I got back up and the stag made another motion as if to hit me again. I stumbled backwards and managed to get back to my feet. I glanced back at the dog and the werewolf (for that was the obvious answer to all the riddles) tearing at each other. With one hand on my chest I staggered back down the passage with the stag behind me, forcing me back. Something small and furry scarpered down the passage ahead of me, but I continued back, my head whirling.

The journey back felt at least five times as long as the journey down from the Willow for several reasons. The first was that the stag behind me kept butting me in the back to try and speed me up, and the second was that I half-expected the werewolf to come pounding down upon me any second. Terrified, I was relieved to see the moonlight streaked opening of the roots at the base of the Willow. The rat (for that was now what I saw the small and furry creature to be) watched as I approached and then scurried up through the roots and the stag forced me up the hole.

The Willow was frozen. The rat was curled up in the knot on the trunk, watching me. I gave it a suspicious look and it just looked back silently. It reminded me of someone, but I couldn't work out who. I staggered out of range of the Whomping Willow and looked back at the hole behind me, half expecting the stag to be following me. It wasn't. Climbing out of the roots was a human: James Potter. My fear suddenly became anger and I opened my mouth to tell him exactly how I felt but I didn't have any time to begin. Potter was looking out of breath and covered in dirt, but managed to get up to me and speak first.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" he asked, pushing me quite hard in the chest and causing a fresh bout of pain. "Why do you always have to poke your greasy nose in where it's not wanted, Snivelus?"

"What was _I_ doing here?" I snarled back. "I might as well ask you the same thing, Potter." He didn't answer that question, unsurprisingly. I glared at him. "You knew," I said slowly. "You did this. You knew what Black told me." Potter didn't answer that either. He grabbed me by the arm.

"Look," he said. "Now if you know what's good for you, you won't tell anyone what you just saw." I sneered at him.

"And why not?" I thought he deserved it; they all did for trying to kill me. Not only that, what about all the other students and teachers? Dumbledore must have known. Madam Pomfrey evidently did. But still... Potter looked worried (the first time I have genuinely seen him like that).

"Dumbledore will tell you," he said after a while. Then he looked at his hands as he let go of me, and then back at me. "You're bleeding," he said, and I looked down. He was right. The stag had hit me so hard in the chest that there was blood on my robes where it had cut me. Now I knew why my chest was hurting. At least my ribs weren't broken. I put my hand over the wound again and gave Potter a look of poison.

"I don't know what you're trying to do," I said. "But it's not working. I still hate you."  
"Feeling's mutual there," Potter shrugged. "But you might want to see Madam Pomfrey about that." He gestured at my chest. He turned back to the Willow.

"Why did you do it?" I asked. Potter turned back.

"Do what?" he asked. I was getting angry again.

"That stag."

"What about it?"

"Never mind," I said. "Just don't consider yourself brave because of this. Or clever." Potter laughed but didn't say anything. I turned to go back to the castle, but turned a few seconds later to give Potter one last look of hatred. He had gone, and lingering in the trees on the edge of the Forbidden Forest, the stag stared at me.

Madam Pomfrey is truly a miracle worker. She fixed my cuts in a matter of seconds but kept me in the Hospital Wing to check if the werewolf had bitten me (despite my constant assurances that it hadn't). I know the truth now, though, and one day I will get them all back for what they tried to do to me.

"_He was forbidden to tell anyone by Dumbledore, but from that time on he knew what I was..."_

"_So that's why Snape doesn't like you," said Harry slowly, "because he thought you were in on the joke."_


End file.
